A Candle in the Sun

by L. J. LaBarthe

  “I wanna ride you,” Gabriel purred, shifting a little so that he was more comfortable. “You’re still hard. I can feel you in me.”

  Michael whimpered and nodded, his hands going to Gabriel’s arms, and Gabriel began to rise and fall on Michael’s lap, fucking himself on Michael’s cock. He reached up to tease Michael’s nipples with the tips of his fingers, lightly pinching one then the other, then leaned down to lick each one to soothe the sting of the pinch. Beneath him, Michael arched and rocked, babbling half-phrases and barely formed words of love and desire, and Gabriel finally gave into his own growing desire and kissed Michael.

  It was a hard kiss, bruising and hungry, full of animalistic want. Michael kissed him back and Gabriel felt one of Michael’s hands in his hair and the other in his wing. He growled into the kiss as Michael tugged a handful of feathers, and reached down to work a hand between them to take hold of his own cock and stroke himself, still slick with come from his previous orgasm, as he rode Michael hard and fast.

  “Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel. You undo me in the most wonderful way. I love you so much. I am always yours, have always been yours. This love of ours is wonderful, you are the answer to every question I have asked, and my true Grace’s mate. I love how you make me feel in our bed and when we are together like this. I love how you make me feel when we are together. I love you. I love you, I love you!”

  Gabriel groaned and came, and a moment later, he felt Michael orgasm as well. He ended the kiss and gazed down at Michael, taking in the flush that colored his cheeks and the brightness in his dark eyes.

  “You, Mishka, my Michael, are my morning, noon, and night,” he said. “I don’t have the words. I ain’t a poet like you. But you’re everything to me. I can face anything with you beside me.”

  Michael smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t need to thank me for that. Otherwise I’d have to thank you for loving me, and we’d be thanking each other for stuff for the rest of forever, and there’s stuff I’d rather do.”

  Michael chuckled. “I see. Stuff such as what?”

  Gabriel smirked. He couldn’t help it. “Later, after we’ve rested and had a shower, I want to eat you out. Spread your legs, get a pillow beneath your sexy butt, and just bury my face between your thighs. Suck your cock, then your balls, then fuck you with my tongue—eat you out.”

  Michael blushed immediately. “Language. But… I would very much enjoy that, Gabriel.”

  “Mm, so would I.” Gabriel kissed the tip of Michael’s nose. “You know you can do whatever you want to me, too.”

  “I know. I am… unsure. I will do so, I promise.” Michael touched Gabriel’s cheek. “I am not as well-versed in this activity as you, as you know. Yet, I would very much like to tie you up and then bring you so much pleasure that you scream.”

  “Yeah, you should totally do that,” Gabriel said.

  Michael smiled once more. “Then after I have telephoned Angelique in the morning, we can begin these activities.”

  “I love the way you think.”

  “I am very fond of your way of thinking as well, although there is much I do not yet understand. But I am learning, and learning is part of the joy, is it not?”

  “Aye. And not just learning about each other, but about everything in creation.”

  “That was my thought as well.” Michael let out a soft sigh. “Alas, I seem to have slipped from your body.”

  “You can be there again after we rest a bit,” Gabriel said. “After you call Trouble.”

  “As you say.” Gabriel felt Michael’s arms wrap around him. “Gabriel, can I ask you something?”

  “Of course.”

  “Are you happy with how things have turned out? This century has been turbulent, it is true, and there have been many sorrows and few joys for the world as a whole, indeed, for the universe. But now that we reach the close of it, I find that all that came before was a lesson. A painful one at times, and a difficult one too, but a necessary one. And I am content.”

  “The war made me very angry,” Gabriel said slowly. “And then it made me very sad. And then the sadness became resignation, so that when it ended, I was too tired to rejoice at it being over. And you know, I don’t think it was truly, properly over until now. So much crap—sorry, but it’s a good word for this—has happened since the end of the war, and we’ve been working with the Archdemons, and there’s this truce between Heaven and Hell…. Necessary things ain’t always easy to swallow. But overall, aye, I’m happy with where we are now. And by we, I mean all of creation, not just you and me, though you and me are the best part.”

  Michael nodded. “I feel the same.”

  “Good. Love you, Mishka.”

  “I love you as well, Gabriel. Very much.”

  “BUT THIS is extraordinary.” Lucifer uncoiled himself like a serpent from the elaborately carved jarrah chair he’d been sitting in as Adramelek delivered his report. “The human law enforcements showed up—at Arthur’s request—took over the investigation and retribution in a most efficient manner from what you describe, and the Archangels are content with this? Are you content with this?”

  Adramelek spread his hands as he shrugged. He had seated himself on the floor, preferring to lounge on the plush carpet of Lucifer’s private suite. “I’m not upset or anything. We still get the souls of the witches who were all gung ho and totally on board with Transom’s goals. The others, the ones who we aren’t certain of, will face Tzadkiel and his judgment first. So I’m not too upset about that. As for the rest, well… I hate to say it, but I think Gabriel’s got the right of it.”

  “Hm, yes. Letting the humans take control of things otherwise they’ll become dependent on Archangelic or Archdemonic intervention. I can’t say I disagree with him, and I dislike that. I dislike agreeing with Archangels.” Lucifer sighed and shook his head. “It’s a minor irritant, however.”

  “Any word from upstairs?” Adramelek asked. “Has God sent you a message pigeon?”

  Lucifer snorted. “I got a short missive, penned by a Throne. His Luminescence is pleased with the outcome and feels that it’s wise to pull back our people and let Earth deal with it. When the humans die, things will be sorted out as they usually are, barring those witches who will be joining us regardless.”

  Adramelek couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “You’re finding this alliance between you two a little hard to bear, huh?”

  “The alliance itself, no. The random communiqués I receive via white pigeon—or perhaps they’re doves, who knows—are the irritating things. The Thrones are stuffy, Adry. I’m glad you were never like them when you were one of their number.”

  “They do spend the majority of their time fawning over God,” Adramelek said.

  Lucifer huffed. “I suppose. Anyway, was Raziel able to squirrel away the information that could have damaged us all?”

  “The stuff about the synthetic magic? Yeah, he got all of that away no problem.”

  Lucifer stood and stretched. He looked magnificent, Adramelek thought, robed in white, his feet bare, his golden skin radiating good health. His luxurious dark hair fell in waves to his shoulders, and his pure white wings gleamed with oils. Lucifer’s sole adornment was a simple gold ring on his right ring finger; it was carved in the shape of a knife, and Adramelek realized he hadn’t seen Lucifer wearing it before.

  “What’s with the ring, Lightbringer?”

  “Hm?” Lucifer quirked an eyebrow and then he laughed. “I found it last week. Don’t you recognize it?”

  Adramelek pushed himself to his feet and moved closer, taking Lucifer’s hand in his and peering at the ring. A memory teased at him, something from long, long ago, and he was right on the verge of saying that no, he couldn’t place it, when it came to him.

  “This is the ring you and I made for you to wear while you walked around Eden!”

  “One and the same.” Lucifer grinned. “I was feeling a little nostalgic, so I thought I’d wear it. It still fi
ts nicely.”

  “I remember now. We made it so you could move around freely, looking like a human, but be identified by our kind. The glamour you were wearing was too strong for other Fallen or the demons to recognize you as their lord, so the ring was your way of letting them know not to try to kill you.”

  “Indeed. It worked very well. I was able to tempt Eve into eating an apple, then saunter out the gate before Uriel realized I’d visited. Ah, those were the days.” Lucifer sighed. “Now then,” he went on, all business, “let us return to the here and now, and to what our plans are for the future.”

  Adramelek moved closer and rested his hands on Lucifer’s shoulders. “My lord,” he began formally, “I want you to know that wherever you choose to send me and whatever you bid me do, I will do with good cheer because it is you who ask it of me.”

  Lucifer’s smile was as bright as the morning sun, and Adramelek smiled back, unable to hold back in the brilliance of such a smile. And then Lucifer was kissing him, one of his hands tangling in Adramelek’s hair, and Adramelek moaned happily as he melted into his beloved.

  “I know you were not gone long, but I missed you, Adramelek.”

  “I missed you too.”

  Lucifer nipped Adramelek’s lower lip and Adramelek growled, feeling a surge of desire flood through him.

  “Why aren’t we in the bed chamber yet?” he thought.

  Lucifer’s soft laughter filled Adramelek’s mind. The next instant, Adramelek felt the shift of teleportation and then the softness of down-filled comforters on a firm mattress as they emerged in reality upon the bed. Lucifer was naked, Adramelek realized fuzzily, as he ran his hands down Lucifer’s back. He must have done that at the same time as he had teleported them.

  “Adramelek,” Lucifer purred, breaking the kiss and ducking his head so he could nuzzle Adramelek’s cheek. “I really missed you.”

  “You’re going to give me an enormous ego,” Adramelek panted. He used his own power to rid himself of his own clothes, which had suddenly become a great annoyance and an impediment to his most pressing desire—feeling Lucifer against him, skin to skin.

  “You already have an enormous ego,” Lucifer said. His voice was rough with desire and he manhandled them so that he was straddling Adramelek, looking down at him.

  “I suppose I do,” Adramelek agreed. He gazed up into Lucifer’s bright blue eyes and frowned slightly. “Is something the matter?”

  “No. It’s just that I missed you, and I have found the strangest thing in myself. I find that when you’re not here, I am far more angry and foul-tempered. It was Lilith who suggested to me that it was your absence that was making me, as she put it, ‘like a hell-bear with a choir of angels singing hymns on repeat.’”

  Adramelek laughed. “That’s a terrific description. I’m touched. You miss me and get cranky when I’m not here, huh? Well,”—and he ran his hands up Lucifer’s back to his wing joints—“there were moments when I felt almost… bereft. When we weren’t running ragged getting information and making plans and putting those plans into motion, I would feel… off-kilter. And I realized then that it was because I missed your presence. Having your voice in my head is lovely, but it isn’t the same as the physical connection we have.”

  Lucifer nodded. “Quite so. And I have made a decision.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. I don’t want you to leave Hell for extended periods for some time. Oh, I know you’ll have to go to those trials, and I want you there so you can report to me what’s going on, but those will be a day at a time, not weeks or months. I prefer you to be in Hell, where I can be with you easily, Adry. Not… all the other dimensions.”

  “Except Heaven,” Adramelek said. He wrinkled his nose. “But I take your point. The trials will, as you say, require my presence only occasionally. There are two cases that I am particularly interested in attending, but the others are only peripheral to my interest.”

  “Which two are those?” Lucifer’s face was wreathed in curiosity.

  “The one of Mr. Edwards senior and the one of the head witch of the coven.”

  “Ah yes, the man who angered Ondrass.” Lucifer hummed. “I rather imagine that he’s wishing he could live forever and avoid death.”

  “Probably. Ondrass is pissed.”

  “We can talk about this later,” Lucifer said. “Right now, there are more pressing matters at hand.”

  Adramelek couldn’t help it. The words were out before he could stop himself. “I can feel a pressing matter pressing against my hip, as it happens.”

  Lucifer’s eyes widened in astonishment and then he burst out laughing. “Adry! Brat.”

  “Your brat.” Adramelek tugged Lucifer down and kissed him hard.

  “Mm.” Lucifer gave as good as he got, but it wasn’t long before he was whispering in Adramelek’s mind, and Adramelek gave himself over to it wholly. He shed his physical form of the Russian male with short, light-brown hair and bright blue eyes and baby face, who didn’t look a day over thirty. Then he became his true self, a creature made of energy and light, his black and red wings fanning out behind him like streamers of ink and crushed raspberries.

  Lucifer was barely a moment behind him, and the two of them, no longer humanoid, but in their true forms, twined around each other, melding together in swirls of colored light, coalescing into a luminance that was gold, white, and blue, streamers of purest white, bright red, and deepest black trailing behind them.

  There was nothing more intimate than this joining, Adramelek thought as he let down his shields and reached out with his power and his Grace for Lucifer. Feeling Lucifer’s own powers and Grace winding around his like ribbons around a maypole, embraced in the warmth and energy of such intense power and love, never failed to make Adramelek feel completely and utterly wanted—desired in a way that no other sentient being could ever hope to mimic. There was a deep, primitive passion to this merging, a time remembered before there was such a thing as Time, when Heaven was the only reality and angels lived in pure harmony and bliss with the Creator. Lucifer had been bright and shining then; now he was incandescent.

  Adramelek felt the slow burn of desire course through him, even in this, his most elemental form. It began as a low thrum of energy, a sound that was slightly discordant and it grew in volume and intensity, becoming more harmonious and more attuned to the joining of himself and Lucifer. When it reached its peak, when he climaxed, it was with a shower of red and black light, speckled with blue and silver, and joined a moment later by the gold and white lights of Lucifer’s own power and Grace.

  They returned to Lucifer’s bedroom in the Castle of Black Ice and slipped into their humanoid shapes once again, panting from their exertions. Adramelek wondered if his own eyes were as bright as Lucifer’s were—if the blue of his own eyes was as bright as newly polished sapphires, shining with love and devotion.

  “Adramelek,” Lucifer said, “you are my oldest friend, my first companion, my truest ally and my most compatible love. Perhaps I could choose better words, but I’m not a poet nor am I given to lengthy rhetoric, particularly on matters of the heart or soul such as this. Just know that without you, I feel lessened, and my universe, indeed, all of Hell, is darker for me when you are not within it.”

  Adramelek pressed the palms of his hands together and bowed his head to Lucifer. “I love you,” he said simply.

  Lucifer reached out and pulled him into his arms. “That makes me happier than anything else ever has,” he said, his voice muffled against Adramelek’s hair.

  “You honor me,” Adramelek said. “And I want you to keep doing it.”

  Lucifer laughed; a throaty, wicked sound. “I’m glad you said that. If you’d said something more self-effacing, I would have thought you’d been around angels too long.”

  Adramelek snorted. “Hardly.”

  “Good.” Lucifer let go of Adramelek and lay down on his bed. “Come here.”

  Adramelek crawled over to join him, lying down and stret
ching out beside him. “So what next?”

  “You’ll go to the trials with the rest of your guild. Report here at the end of each day. And don’t forget to feed your cat.”

  Adramelek burst out laughing. “Did he lodge a complaint?”

  “Just a politely worded plea,” Lucifer said.

  “Right. I’ll take care of Sprite now, with my power,” Adramelek said. He was still chuckling. “Silly animal.”

  “Fun, though,” Lucifer said. “All of Hell’s creatures are fun.”

  “No arguments there.” Adramelek reached out and used his power to get some food out of the fridge in his dacha for his cat. It amused him that Sprite was perfectly capable of doing it for himself—he was, as Lucifer had said, a creature of Hell and therefore had basic powers and abilities—but Adramelek knew that Sprite preferred to be waited on by Adramelek himself. “Demanding fuzz butt,” he thought to the animal.

  “Perhaps. But you enjoy it,” Sprite thought back. “Thank you, Adry.”

  “You’re welcome.” Adramelek pulled his power back into himself and returned his full attention to his love and his lord—Lucifer Lightbringer Morningstar.

  SEVERAL HOURS later, Adramelek, lying flat on his stomach, his wings unfurled and lazily draped over Lucifer and the edge of the bed, had the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. He rolled onto his side and almost let out a squawk as he saw a white dove staring at him.

  “Fuck!” Adramelek sat up and ran his hands through his hair. “Lucifer,” he grumbled, “you’ve got a message.”

  “Hm?” The bed dipped as Lucifer moved and Adramelek shifted over so that his beloved could sit beside him. The dove cocked its head, first left then right, as if watching the two of them with complete incomprehension.

  “Your message.” Adramelek jutted his chin toward the bird.

  Lucifer rolled his eyes. “How long have you been there?” he asked it.